Monday, August 31, 2009

NEITHER CAMPAIGN NOR LEGITIMATE ELECTIONS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE COUP.

The general elections without the restitution of the constitutional order would be the legalization of the military violence against the State; and as such unacceptable. In light of this, the National Front of Resistance against the Coup d'Etat declares:

1. We do not recognize the electoral campaign, process and results, if the constitutional order is not reinstated, whose fundamental basis is the re-installation to his post of the legitimate constitutional President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

2. We exhort the Democratic Unification Party UD, the independent candidacies, the non-coup-aligned candidates to popularly elected posts from the Liberal Party and the Innovation Party, to make manifest their political position regarding the electoral process in the country.

3. We condemn the militarization of the society and of the so-called "electoral process" by the coup-makers, who with their armed presence introduce an additional element of political party violence and heighten the conditions of exclusion, darkness and repression to the detriment of the participants.=

4. We reiterate the call to promote the direct installation of a popular, participatory, inclusive, non-discriminatory and democratic National Constitutional Assembly.

“AT 61 DAYS OF STRUGGLE HERE NOBODY IS SURRENDERING”Tegucigalpa, Honduras August 28th, 2009

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Friday August 21st, 55th day of popular resistance and the social fervor in all corners of the country makes itself felt with greater strength, all over non-traditional forms of protesting against the coup d'etat are organized and sought. The tireless marchers make themselves present every day in the streets and don't stop, they are unstoppable warriors struggling bravely for the value of the rights snatched through away by the thug trolls.

The peaceful march of today began with a speech by the popular leader Juan Barahona, strongly applauded by the people congregated there, there were also some conscious national and international media there. It left the Francisco Morazán National Pedagogical University in the morning hours, carrying three imitation coffins with the names of Pedro Magdiel, Isis Obed and Róger Vallejo, friends brutally assassinated by the military and police.

The march was accompanied by the friend and priest José Andrés Tamayo, an indigenous man hardened by injustices and his struggle against them- of which all sectors of the country should be vigilant, as the thug government of Micheletti continues threatening to take away his citizenship - also present was friend and congressperson for the Democratic Unification Party Marvin Ponce, with his arm broken but his consciousness stronger than ever; the collective of Women in Resistance, who are complete feminists worthy of admiration, the band of the “Jesús Aguilar Paz” institute with its catchy rhythms, the Garífunas who have left their beaches and sea to fight in the asphalt streets with their punta music,drums and conch, the friends of the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations (COPINH) and the always combative populous of La Canaán, with its red flag in front.

The thousands of throats lined up headed towards the Central American boulevard, making felt its total repudiation of the coup d'etat. Then they went down the “Juan Pablo II” boulevard passing the Zero Zone close to the "current presidential palace." They continued their combative path until passing Channel 36 and its belligerent owner Esdras Amado López giving him respect and admiration for staying on the side of the people in its just demands; continuing then in front of the Argentine embassy showing complete solidarity with the Honduran people in the streets. They continued their path through the center of Tegucigalpa, until arriving at the plaza of the “Francisco Morazán” central park, where they wound the COPINH friends chained in protest to the fence of the Metropolitan cathedral. In that place thousands of protesters delighted for hours with a program of music, poetry and theater that the Feminists in Resistance had prepared to receive the march and pay homage to the international feminists, who in a clear act of solidarity are visiting our country. After ending this act the peaceful protesters went to their homes, to prepare towards another new day in the streets, until they take out the thug betrayers of the homeland and reinstate their President Mel Zelaya, who the people elected as the representative of all Hondurans.

ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE

Organization is basic in all human groups, some need to be organized and others not, they just take the example and with that innate association of being human organize themselves.

That is what is happening in all of Honduras, it wasn't necessary for anyone to organize the people, because since the beginning they energetically rejected the coup d'etat and protested in the streets, the same ones they haven't left despite all the repression suffered, all the dead they have cried over, all the beaten and wounded, because they understand that their struggle is close to its conclusion.

The tireless did no wait to be organized, as their own intuition told them that only united would they de-throne the thug usurpers, that's why they come out in little-known marches like the protests of motorized cars, motorcyclists, even bikers in Tegucigalpa and Choluteca, writing the truth by internet, the march of the lanterns in El Progreso, concerts in parks, international concerts - that cost the conscious people in contributions, etc - in sum, they use all forms of protest to demonstrate in the streets.

But in addition to all of the above, people are organizing in San Pedro Sula, Cortés, Tela, La Ceiba, Intibucá, Santa Bárbara, Tocoa etc. in barrios, neighborhoods even in the farthest villages of Honduras. Nothing can stop the organized people, that is why the triumph of the Honduran people can be felt floating in the atmosphere and that people will not be deceived.

The struggle continues, the Morazánian ideal is present more than ever in the daily battle!

UNION OF WRITERS AND ARTISTS OF HONDURAS (UEAH), MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL FRONT AGAINST THE COUP D'ETAT.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Report on a Week of National and International Resistance Beginning August 11, the National Front Against the Coup in Honduras called for a week of resistance. Thousands of people mobilized from all over Honduras to participate in protests in Tegucigalpa and elsewhere. Below is a report and photos from Alexy Lanza member of La Voz who is in Honduras.

I arrived on August 11th, the National and International Day of Resistance and protests against the coup d’etat in Honduras that occurred on June 28th. It was another day of resistance, there were protests across the country, civic work stoppages, takeovers of highways, and in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, there was a massive protest, during which a bus and a fast food restaurant, Popeye’s, were burned. According to the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d’etat, these last actions were taken by agent provocateurs - police who had infiltrated the protest and the actions brought a brutal repression against the protesters.

There have been infiltrations continuously in the mobilizations by provocateurs producing vandalism in the city; they have also infiltrated with the goal of identifying the leaders and filming the protests with the aim of distorting the image of the marches. I ran into trouble myself at the beginning in documenting the events, because I was without a press credential and I was confused with an infiltrator.

My First Day of Protest

Wednesday, August 12 at 9 am, I joined in the protest in which there were 15,000 people. It was a peaceful protest until the military and police forces repressed it brutally. At around 1pm we were arriving at the Congress and I was at the front of the protest where I was witness to the army’s attack against the peaceful protest. Congressman, Marvin Ponce, who I had just greeted was grabbed by 8 or more soldiers who beat him brutally, and on all sides they were attacking the protesters; dozens of tear gas bombs were launched against the protesters, who were arrested, beaten, humiliated and tortured. 26 were arrested right there, among them, 2 minors, 2 women, and medical students. The soldiers dedicated themselves to arresting and beating everyone they found in the street, so that some of those 26 arrested weren’t participants in the march. In fact, one of those detained was a golpista (supporter of the coup); they also arrested a Colombian tourist who was born in Venezuela but raised since an infant in Colombia - just like the others, he was subject to blows and humiliations.

Save yourselves, those who can.

In the face of this brutal repression, the march dispersed. I had to take a taxi to the Pedagogic University where it was expected people would be arriving since this had been the meeting place for the marches. Arriving at the university with my lungs full of smoke and my face and eyes burning, I rested for a moment and was drinking water when various compañeros began shouting, “run compañeros run, the soldiers are coming”. I got up and saw the arrival of the soldiers, shooting and throwing tear gas bombs, they shouted, “get them, and get these dogs”. Again there was no choice other than to run ---approximately 200 soldiers entered and took over the University. As I ran I saw them shutting the university’s gates so that no one else could leave; inside there were 40 people who were arrested. They had been resting and eating in the basement of the auditorium; I had been on my way there to eat, but had not gotten to the basement; otherwise I would have been one of them.

Shootings at the Via Campesina Offices

On August 11, a curfew was declared, despite that, late that night, the office of Via Campesina was shot up by unidentified individuals. There were various leaders of the anti-coup movement in the office at the time of the shooting.

Second Day - The Public Ministry

Thursday the 13th another day of began with the protest heading toward the Public Ministry where the repression suffered the day before was denounced to the Prosecutors for the Office of Human Rights. While the people waited outside the offices, a commission from the National Front Against the Coup met with various prosecutors. In the meeting it was agreed to accept (the report of) the irregularities and violations of human rights that the military and police forces incurred. Afterwards the protest headed towards Radio Globo’s building where it concluded. The day’s work ended without major repression by the army or police.

Day Three- the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH)

The conscious people once again shouted, “Present” on Friday the 14th of August. This time the protest left from the Pedagogic University passing through the neighborhoods called “Kennedy” and “Alto” in the direction of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) where another day of work ended, also without repression by the army and police

Day Four - The Airport

Saturday the 15th, the people in resistance began at the offices of the Beverage Workers Union (STIBIS) and moved towards the airport, first passing through the neighborhoods and ending with a mass in memory of the young man assassinated by the army at the airport. On this day there was no repression from the army despite its strong presence at the protest.

Day 5 - Assembly

Sunday, August 16th the National Front Against the Coup d’etat held an assembly. I asked for a brief meeting with the coordinating commission (steering committee) of the Front to let them know about the efforts that different organizations in cities in the U.S. have made (in solidarity). I also let them know about plans to organize a delegation composed of representatives from various organizations in about a month and the intention of the delegation to have discussions with different sectors of the Front and of course to participate in denouncing abuses. The compañeros were glad to receive the information. There was not time for dialogue due to the crowded agenda.

In the assembly it was agreed to continue resisting by all possible peaceful means, it was emphasized that it would be a decisive week because on Monday the 17th the International Commission of Human Rights was expected and also expected during the week is a commission from the Organization of American States (OAS); so another day of resistance was planned for Monday the 17th starting at the Pedagogic University.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Gerardo Torres (pictured here during his recent visit as part of the Honduran resistance delegation to Chicago) is a young Honduran who is part of the People's Block of which he is one of the national organizers and also an independent journalist and member of the group Los Necios, which is a community organization in Honduras working with workers, peasants, student federations and feminist organizations, finally he is an active member of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d'Etat in Honduras.

"To scream goal" by Gerardo Torres, Los Necios

In the morning we woke up thinking that the hour of the new confrontation had arrived.

Not a sports one, but the continuation of this clash that has caused the collision in Honduras of the few who have always had everything with the many of us who don't have anything or almost anything, which isn't the same, but is equal.

Each person arrived at the Francisco Morazán National Pedagogical University proudly wearing the team shirt, of that team that we all are, that is not sponsored by the coup banks and that carries the name of all of us who struggle, of those who can't struggle and of those who have fallen struggling with pride on these backs that are so used to the sun.

We leave the university's facilities like those who leave changing rooms surrounded by applause. That's how the minute... excuse me the 46th day of this great resistance began.

The headlines said, "Honduras takes on Costa Rica today in San Pedro Sula," but in reality in the streets Honduras is facing a tyranny that calls its best sons and daughters vandals, Honduras is facing the the major business groups who ask for peace and then send savage thugs dressed in military green and police blue (uniforms faded by guilt and infamy and stained with innocent blood) to the streets to kill.

The physical wear is high but the willingness is even bigger, so the people's team descended into the heart of the city. The end was the National Congress that is willing to approve more obligatory military service to start a hunt against the youth as an attempt to perish youth hope in the pathetic coldness of the battalions.

They provoked and broke a peaceful march with tear gas bombs, live ammunition and rubber grenades. In the middle of the day the center of Tegucigalpa was the stage for the ire of the repressive forces that even with tubes came down on top of the young people, women, men, elders and kids who raised their hands not to celebrate goals nor to initiate battles but just to try to protect themselves from the rabid jaws.

The hour of the game was closing in and throughout the city those of us able to escapte looked from police post to police post for those who had been captured. By the hundreds people left keeping their heads high and looking directly in the eyes those who though coming from the same people today without human consciousness have accepted the order to attack their sisters and brothers.

"There are people captured in the battalions" was announced with a worried voice. The military spokespeople denied it, but we searched. It was confirmed, even at this hour in the Special Forces Battalion or "Cobra Battalion" of the 21 de octubre neighborhood in Tegucigalpa that the following sisters and brothers are illegally captured:

1.. Avilio Antonio Izaguierre 23 years old

2. Florentino Izaguirre Hernandez 32

3. Santos Ricardo Pena Pavon 22

4. Emerson Barahona Avila 25

5. Daniel Angel Carcamo Sanchez 23

6. Osmin Daniel Santillana 27

7. Nilko Duran 30

8. Santos Rene Herrera 53

9. Justo Pastor Mondragon 65

10. Darwin Said Hernandez Carbajal 23

11. Lisandro Gomez Martinez, 56

12. Mario Rodrigo Ardon Betancourt 20

13. Nelson Gustavo Rivera Lopez 32

14. Jose Natividad Perez Lorenzo 48

15. Oscar Marcell Murillo 22

16. Ariel Arturo Sierra Coello minor, age 16

17. Allan Samael Cruz, minor

18. Santos Ricardo Pena Pavon 21

19. Darwin Amaya Alvarado 22

20. Magdalena Lazo Pineda 48

21. Alba Leticia Ochoa Camacho 53

22. Sergio Raul Jerezano Cruz, minor 16

23. Wilmer Domingo Lopez Marroqui 26

24. Arturo Flores Baleriano 36

25. Mabel Carolina Lopez.

But even as such the whistle of the beginning of the game happened in the Olympic Stadium of San Pedro Sula at 7:30 pm punctually. The facilities were completely packed and the Honduran people upon having a space to be able to scream without the obstacle of tear gas bombs or the danger of guns did so with all its heart.

When the young Mexican referee Marco Antonio Rodríguez nullified the clear goal of the Honduran team at the beginning of hte game things got tense. Televicentro (the main national private television station) which has been one of the main voices of the Coup d'Etat and of the de facto government used its microphones to call for popular insurrection to punish the referee. The announcers told people that is the national team lost people shouldn't let the Mexican leave the country alive. It is easy for these media delinquents to call for attacking a man for an error in a soccer game, but impossible to do it against those who have taken away from us much more than just a goal.

But Carlo Costly got a goal and Honduras burst out in joy. While everybody in the San Pedro Sula stadium jumped in the trenches of the battalions they wanted to put out the voice of the people. The stories come to mind that many of us have only read of that world cup game in Argentina in 1978 in which the cries from the stadium served to hide the screams for help of the thousands of Argentinians who died strangled by the military violence.

Honduras beat Costa Rica 4-0 and for 90 minutes the people screamed like it never had, in the streets of the different cities the celebration extended greatly, as screaming goal in Honduras is a liberatory experience, but screaming for four is an historic event.

The people left the stadium holding up four fingers to the cameras with a complicit smile because it was exactly those four fingers that they were holding up before the military and the business people attempted to take out democracy. The four of today looks much like the sign of the fourth ballot box that announced the beginning of the path towards a new Democratic Popular Constitution that continues on the path to becoming a reality although the archaic groups of the powerful refuse to accept it.

To scream goal as we should it is necessary to leave behind all repressive elements, open our arms and let out all of that contained energy to have a fleeting sensation of freedom.

To liberate a homeland it is necessary to confront all the repressive elements, open our arms and show our fists, let all the popular energy out in an explosion that allows for the installation of permanent freedom.

Today we continue vigilant of our sisters and brothers kidnapped in the battalions.

Today the 13th of August we will be once again in the Pedagogical University for a new meeting with history at exactly 8:00 am.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

(Translated from a telephone report filed by Alexy Lanza at 9:35 pm Chicago time - translation by La Voz de los de Abajo).

Tear gas was fired directly into the crowds of protesters, rubber bullets and truncheons were used to disperse the thousands of Hondurans who had marched through the city to the National Congress today to protest against the coup and demand restitution of the constitutional government of Mel Zelaya.

There were many injuries and arrests - The soldiers and police, heavily armed and in full combat gear acting against unarmed men and women of all ages. In an unforgettable moment, I watched as a congressional Deputy from the anti-coup leftist party the Democratic Unification (UD), Marvin Ponce was attacked by at least 12 policemen and brutally beaten. He was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital; witnesses reported that at the hospital the police continued to beat and torment Ponce, interfering with his medical treatment.

As the police increased their violent sweep of the area I joined the rest of the protesters in fleeing the area; trying to avoid arrest or beatings or worse. I made my way to the Francisco Morazan National Autonomous University, which has been held by the students as part of the anti-coup resistance for weeks. The University has also been an organizing center and has provided shelter for people coming in from the rural areas to join in the protest movement. When I got to the University, people were trickling in from the downtown area. I saw one of the leaders from the Garifuna organization (OFRAHNI) who told me almost that a large number of compañeros from their organization were detained in the repression at the Congress.

Suddenly a large number of heavily armed soldiers arrived and attacked with tear gas, and rubber bullets forcing their way into university. They began arresting and beating the students and were able to seize control of at least a large part of the university. As the attack continued, I was forced to run from the troops and got away.

Today’s mobilizations were the second day of massive peaceful marches that began yesterday. Thousands of Hondurans responded to the call for increased mobilization by walking for as many as 5 days from the farthest corners of rural Honduras in order to get to one of the two major cities, Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Zula. Yesterday’s protests were not repressed but today was another story. There have also been increasing attacks of the death-squad type. Today, I spoke with Rafael Alegria from Via Campesina in Honduras who told me that last night (August 11th) after the day of mobilizations, at about 11:30 pm, the Via Campesina center was riddled with bullets fired by men who pulled up in front of the center in a civilian SUV. No one was injured, but the message is clear. Via Campesina is another organization that has offered its offices as an organizing center and shelter and Alegria has been detained and released and now has another threat of detention against him.

The defacto coup government and its military are increasing the violence again to try and do away with the resistance movement of the Honduran people who are the only real obstacle standing in the way of the oligarchy's plans. The National Front for Resistance Against the Coup has called for the mobilizations to continue tomorrow beginning at 8 am.

Everyone from the social organizations to the people in the streets who don’t belong to any organization, are calling for international solidarity to come to their aid in any way possible. They have been in the struggle for more than 40 days and need all of our help to continue.

(Alexy Lanza lives in Chicago and is a member of La Voz de los de Abajo, Casa Morazan and Producciones EN EL OJO-independent media)

I am Fanni Eliszabeth Solarzano Castillo and I represent the Garifuna community Triunfo de la Cruz.

Honduras Resiste: Since when have you participated in the National Resistance Front?

Fanni Eliszabeth Solarzano Castillo: Well it's been 43 days, since the 29th of June we made outselves present here in Tegucigalpa with the National Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) and representing the different communities nationally.

HR: And why have you decided to come participate in this movement?

FC: Well I decided to come to support saying no to the coup because it is something that we had never thought we would live through. We have only heard the history, read books of the past, so it seems like a lie that we have to live through this. So I decided to come support because the things that President Manuel Zelaya were doing favored us, the poor people and also if we got the Constitutional Assembly it would have helped the Garifuna as minorities in Honduras and also for the future of out kids, because it's not possible that they can live in a dictatorship that is practically like returning to slavery.

HR: And what benefits could a Constitutional Assembly bring and why so much rejection by the powerful, by the national elites and politicians?

FC: Well the benefits that it could bring would be to change the Constitution of the Republic, to be a change where we could all benefit, so the powerful, the elite as they say, don't support because they think of themselves as owners of the country. They're the ones who have big corporations, businesses and everything and why not, they are those who are considered as owners of our Garifuna communities. So we have to support the Constitutional Assembly, because as I repeat it's a benefit for everyone.

HR: Outside of the capital do you think that there is support for the reinstatement of the elected President Manuel Zelaya?

FC: Well I think that there is support. In almost all 18 departments there is support, although all the bigges protests are here in Tegucigalpa. Almost all the movements of the best people come here because here is the biggest concentration but yes there is support, there are marchs and other actions in support of President Manuel Zelaya.

HR: You have participated in this movement since the 29th of June, can you tell me about what type of action you have done to support the return to democracy in Honduras?

FC: Well, the moral support of all, we were even able to walk to Nicaragua to support President Manuel Zelaya there. I can tell you that everybody supports the way they feel works best. But as Garifuna and as a woman we have supported a lot, we have left our families, out kids, our homes there in our communities to come here and be ready for everything, with our natural medicines, with a lot of things.

HR: In your participation together with the Garifunas and OFRANEH, have you been directly affected by the repression against the resistance movement?

Yes, we have suffered insults, threats, persecutions, in June they even asked us for an "Atlantic Permission" to be able to freely circulate in Tegucigalpa, and we have no idea where that law came from. Well, they have taken away our drums and pursued us when we crossed towards Nicaragua, we walked almost 30 hours through all the valleys and mountains of Danli to get to Nicaragua being pursued by the military. And I can proudly tell you as Garifuna we were the only ones that could laugh at the security of the military and that made them even angrier with us and finally there were some friends that had been behind and they were detained and practically assaulted by them and thanks to national and international contacts we can say that world wide calls started getting made to the police post in Paraiso and Danli. They let these friends go more quickly, but they did suffer racial insults, well they said everything, but than god nothing more happened, but yes we have suffered lots of agression by the military.

HR: And within the Garifuna community Triunfo de la Cruz, how have they been affected by the Coup d'Etat and what is the level of support for the resistance?

FC: I can say that still, almost 43 we have been feeling consequences, because already everything in the community is getting more expensive, the food that we are used to preparing the supplies that we buy, everything is a little more expensive, so that's why we reject the coup and we want the de facto government to leave there and we want our president to return so that everything goes back to normal because we still haven't had consequences, in the future this will be chaos for us, because we run risks as people, as Garifunas, we could return to slavery and also we have the risk of losing our communities. Although a lot of people don't take that into account now it is something that could happen and that is why we are here supporting, and from my community there are a lot of people here making themselves present to support against the coup.

HR: Thank you Fanni, do you want to share some more words before we finish the interview?

FC: Well, to the world in general we want to tell you to stay in tune to everything, to us, to Honduras, that we are against the coup. We want the return of the President of the Republic, we want the Constitutional Assembly and OUT WITH THE COUP!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Tortilla con Sal: We are here now with Salvador Zuniga. What is your organization and what is happening in Honduras?

Salvador Zúñiga: COPINH (the Civic Council of Honduran Popular and Indigenous Peoples' Organizations) - what is happening is a war against an unarmed people, against a people that is simply insisting on the reinstatement of the President they elected four years ago.

In this war, they imprison people. They have reached the point where every day they are jailing up to 300 people. In El Paraiso the holding cells overflow so they take people to the local stadium.

They have murdered people, just like the death squads who, after people go to a demonstration, they abduct them, torture them to death and cut their throat and then they dump the body nearby the demonstration. That was what happened to Pedro Magdiel (Muñoz Salvador). That was how they captured him.

We see the army fire on a demonstration producing many wounded and then when there is a death the Human Rights Ombudsman, the coup supporter Ramon Custodio Lopez says they were firing rubber bullets. But it has been proven that they are M-16 rounds. There is persecution throughout the country.

They (the coup leaders) have always violated the Constitution of the Honduran Republic. They abused it when there was the presence in Honduras of the Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries, the presence of US troops, when they disappeared people in the 1980s - all these things are violations of the Constitution.

The Constitution states that in Honduras there should be no privileged classes, but even so these powerful elitist groups are taking over rivers to make dams to sell electricity for their private benefit. They get an annual subsidy from the State of 20,000,000 lempiras (about US$1m) - the rich, the elite groups, the powerful people who run things.

They violated the Constitution when they installed a President of Panamanian nationality, whom they imposed, Ricardo Maduro. That was an abuse of the Constitution.

Vote for a fourth ballot

And simply for an opinion poll initiated by Manuel Zelaya, President of the Republic, which was non-binding, but rather a vote to discover what Honduran people thought, to see whether or not they agreed with the installation of a fourth ballot in the November elections.

There's a ballot to vote for mayors, another for parliamentary deputies, another for the presidency and that fourth ballot was for the reply to a question that would have said " do you agree with the calling of a national constituent assembly? Yes or no?"

In the republican democratic system, the sovereign is not a king or a queen because there is no king or queen. In a democratic system it is not an autocratic State that is, as it were, God's representative, as one supposes the Pope, or someone similar to be, that holds sovereignty.

Our Constitution says that the people is sovereign. And so then, why a coup d'etat? They say it was because Mel (Manuel Zelaya) wanted to abuse the Constitution of the Republic. But the Constitution establishes precisely that sovereignty belongs to the people. But it also says that among the President's functions is to comply with and to facilitate compliance with the Constitution of the Republic and with international treaties. And there are international treaties that establish that we, the people, have the right to express ourselves.

So then it was simply a question, a consultation and that set off a tremendous persecution.

In order to receive our President whom the Honduran people elected for four years we came with 300 people and they impeded us, stripping away our right to freedom of movement. Then they confiscated our buses and when we set off on foot they came after us.

To the border on foot

TcS: Where did they take away the buses?

SZ: Leaving Tegucigalpa just by the turn off for Tatumbla.

TcS: But that's barely outside Tegucigalpa's Central District!

SZ: Right. And we set off from there, walking, walking, walking. We came to the second military roadblock in Zamorano and got round it. We reached the third in Ojo de Agua and got round that one too. We reached another one further on at Las Crucitas and got round it. Then another in Arenales. The First Lady of our country was there. We got round that one too and from that point the chase began to stop us going any further. We came via the highway but then took a diversion to fool them (the soldiers), because they were up ahead and then they opened fire.

TcS: With live rounds?

SZ: With live rounds, sure. And so from there to here we began walking not along streets or roads but through open hill country. When we came that way they could no longer see us and we lost them.

Along the way they no longer pursued us by land but they began using Tucans, military attack planes, to come after us. These are warplanes, for killing. Us there, then, in the hill country, people beaten up and suffering.

On the way we passed through a town called San Matias in El Paraiso. Right there were the police, to observe that we were arriving that way, because there were people there who said "there they are..."

TcS: Informers?

SZ: Yes, police spies. So we had to head down river so as to reach a place called Santa Rosa. But imagine, that is a really dreadful march, at night without lights. And we made it to Santa Rosa and the chase began again because people again informed on us. So we had to head back again towards El Paraiso. There we were able to take part in a demonstration blocking the main highway and we got some encouragement from the people there. We stayed the night there.

Then next day we carried out the manouevre that brought us here to Nicaragua. Seventy of us were caught going one way and the others were captured going another way. The group of seventy were surrounded by the army at gunpoint - understand? - and taken to the army holding cells in El Paraiso. Then they were thrown into container trucks, locked inside and sent to Tegucigalpa.

A few others of us had stayed in the demonstration, the next day they too were surrounded, captured and also thrown into container trucks. They were taken to San Pedro Sula. People were almost suffocating. Almost suffocating, something terrible, insane.

That is to say, it was not an armed column. The people didn't even have a machete to cut through the forest there with the army on top of them, all because they were coming to receive the President and protest against the coup d'etat.

We had again to pass through the hills until we reached here in Nicaragua and from here to see how to help the President's return to Honduras.

We have regressed 30 years

But what is happening in the country is something incredible. We have regressed 30 years. We thought coups d'etats were something long out of date. Much less did we think they were going to use the armed forces with all their weaponry, with warplanes, to repress the population.

It is something completely senseless. But if you head in that direction just a little way, right there now are the army posts and that is happening throughout the country. Throughout the country people are disappeared, they grab them, they capture them and they disappear them - they don't come back.

There are a number of people in San Pedro, they disappeared two members of the Unificacion Democratica party of the Popular Bloc. And there are people there with gunshot wounds, grazes, because that's how it is in the street, people are shot and left there.

So one ends up saying "what can this be? It is not possible." Against democratic change. And they (the coup leaders) say that this is communism, that Chavez is going to come. Lies! Lies! That's their excuse for the repression. But one cannot imagine what we have been through. And still look, here we are and we are content because we have a roof and are able to sleep.

Up in the hills, in the mud, with rain and all that. And it was not just us who in the end, after 300 has set out, only 40 or so of us could get here. The majority were detained. Even today they detained another dozen, ten garifuna who came with their drums and two of COPINH.

One asks, "But what is going on?" Something completely insane. Practically a state of war. The curfew is not from 6.00pm to 6.00am as it was in El Salvador during the war there. In Honduras the State of Siege is continuous.

Coup regime crimes

I left the column of the little group in which we came, several times to go and buy food - and people were there with that fear, that shock. People are not permitted to go to El Paraiso to buy things because they have imposed a criminal curfew night and day. People can be detained in Tegucigalpa, anywhere

There were two deaths yesterday at a football match. Motagua was playing Olimpia, they are two of the most well known teams in Honduras. So when people left the stadium, the police were there and people got angry, they were overcome with the tension of the coup d'etat and began to shout "Coup-mongers out! Coup-mongers out!"The police started shooting and there were two deaths, young people with all their life ahead of them.

One asks, "what has happened to our country?" in such difficult circumstances. We have reached the point where everything has been lost. We have gone back years and years and years and years. In that sense we therefore have a very dark outlook ahead because even if the President is reinstated, we don't want the negotiations to permit impunity, that they allow an amnesty for crimes committed against civilians.

It is different with crimes that are political in character, but crimes like these, shooting at unarmed people. And in this, there is no doubt at all that there is a major intervention by the Venezuelan ultra-right who were the ones that first began working on this coup d'etat - Robert Carmona and Otto Reich - to turn Honduras back into what it has almost always been, playing the role of a terrorist base to attack democratic processes.

This is a coup d'etat not just against Honduras, it is a coup d'etat against the Central American region and against Latin America. If they get away with this coup d'etat, one may see that Guatemala follows suit, or maybe El Salvador. And so once more the army, the armed forces are going to begin to take decisions of active policy making in Latin America. And we are going to return to the era of the guerrillas too, to the era of bloody savagery

Civil war?

In Honduras we are doing all we can to overthrow the dictatorship without resorting to the use of a single weapon, not even a nail cutter. And although it may be illusory to think that it is possible to defeat them with ideas, with mobilization, with civic resistance, it would be very sad if this failed and a level of armed confrontation were reached.

It is a scenario that is not far off, the scenario of a civil war, an outcome that unfortunately always means suffering for the impoverished, for children and for everyone. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

However the international community also have to play their part. Our people are fighting an unequal struggle, a struggle of unarmed people against people fully armed, of non-violent people against very violent people.

There is a sinister person in our country's history called Billy Joya Mendola. He and Alexander Hernandez and other people like Juan Evangelista Lopez were the ones who disappeared people. This government has Billy Joya as a ministerial adviser on security matters. He is the one waging the dirty war of torture and disappearances.

And now who is also on the other side directing operations? Tiger Bonilla (Colonel Arturo Corrales) one of the most terrible individuals who was also in the era of the death squads.

It is incredible! Imagine, look in El Salvador for example, the confrontation was armed. The people had to arm themselves and had to fight. But in Honduras, people are completely defenceless. And people are fighting. Every day they are mobilizing, There hasn't been a single day since June 28th without resistance action: Every day despite what they (the coup leaders) have wanted.

But simply when we were coming here, when we all met up in the southern highway (out of Tegucigalpa) at Plaza Villas del Sol, we were there with our flags and everything since we were on our way here and their were fighter planes over the demonstration. One asks "Could it be that they are thinking of using them?" Because the simple fact that they fly over us amounts to psychological warfare.

Now people are afraid. They are afraid there in Danlí. Now just the sight of them (the military) makes people tremble. They say "Be careful". People are in a very difficult situation . When they go to the demonstrations they are active and so on. But then when they are alone they feel a situation of panic.

The soldiers

There are many soldiers falling sick and also they are unpaid for the month of June and they are denied weekend leave.

The psychological operation they are running includes a dose of pills that they give to the soldiers. That pill makes their eyes go red and increases their aggression and they take a powder that they use at the military posts, a powder that is a bit like the powder used in a tear gas round and they apply it to the troops and it makes them weep. Then they put them doing exercises and manoeuvres. But they are not eating well and that pill they give the troops quells hunger pangs.

Plenty of the kids in the army want out, they are in a war situation against an enemy that is the ordinary people. It makes no sense to wage war against unarmed civilians against whom they are ordered to open fire.

At that football stadium, when Ramon Custodio Lopez said they were rubber bullets, those were live rounds, 5.56 from an M-16. So the situation of the military is an abuse of their own human rights, because keeping them drugged up all the time so as not to have to feed them - that's something really serious

And yesterday Billy Joya came to the area to do an appraisal of the operational situation and to prepare more repressive operations against the population. A soldier even raised a pistol to Xiomara (the President's wife) when she was at one of the roadblocks. Things that are quite incredible.

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News Sources / Fuentes de Noticias

Radio Progreso has radio updates (Spanish only) directly from the from the front-lines of the resistance in Honduras.

Une TV is one of the only independent national TV stations in Honduras

Rights Action has been doing good reporting and commentary as events unfold and has people on the ground monitoring the situation. They are also a reliable vehicle through which to get money to the organizations fighting for the restoration of democracy in Honduras.

Defensores en línea is the best (Spanish-only) online source for regularly updated information on the violation of human rights in Honduras.

Spanish - website of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras about the struggle of the Garifuna people and other resistance and environmental struggles.

School of the Americas Watch has good background information on the coup-plotters training at the Georgia-based School of the Americas / (also known as the School of Assasins) as well as news updates on the coup and a call to action.